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Date: | Tue, 9 Feb 2016 10:41:36 +0000 |
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The discussion about perception of fragments of a sound wave made me wonder how short a note can still be and have a perceivable pitch (for example, a simple wave played loud at 440Hz). It appears the pragmatic answer is that pitch perception starts when sounds are about 100 milliseconds or longer, with higher pitches being perceptible at considerably shorter bursts (at least in theory). One internet site: http://sound.stackexchange.com/questions/28163/whats-the-shortest-sound-perceptible-to-the-human-ear There, the "Master Handbook of Acoustics" is given as source.
I haven't timed my own ear (which I suspect is on the slow side) but was surprised that the ear doesn't manage to hear pitch in sounds shorter than 1/10 second (except perhaps very high pitches); but it does explain why rapid passages are usually played in higher registers. If one takes 1/10 second as a guide minimum length, that would mean that at 440Hz one hears 44 cycles before recognising pitch.
Maybe somebody can direct me towards better sources of information, this information must be old hat to some people on the list. THanks in advance.
Michael Shields, Galway
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